The Rise Of The Dark
by Caz251
Summary: The rise of the dark side from an early age.
1. Tom Riddle

AN: Written for for **The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition ** Prompt: Yew - **Write about Tom Riddle/Voldemort, whose wand was yew. **

A young boy sat alone in his small room at the orphanage. He had been sent to his room without dinner for misbehaving again. He had apparently been bad, causing mayhem and doing the work of the devil, but he had no idea how he had done it. Yes he had wanted something to happen to the horrible woman who had hit him earlier in the day, but he hadn't pushed her down the stairs. The other adults hadn't believed him though, even though he had been at the bottom of the stairs at the time. Apparently he had been standing at the bottom of the stairs glaring at her, which automatically meant that he was at fault. Tom knew that things that happened around him were always blamed on him even if there was no way that he could be responsible. He wished he was though and he certainly wasn't unhappy at what had happened; they all deserved it. He only wished that it was him who had done it, it would have been more satisfying.

Tom was nine years old when he realised that he was behind the accidents, and that was when he began to plan his revenge. Amy and Dennis were the first ones he made pay, on their annual trip to the seaside, when they tried to leave him in a pool of water in a cave. He made them regret it, and let it serve as a warning to anyone else who wanted to cross him. Not that Amy or Dennis ever told anyone what had happened in that cave, they would never dare, but their silence was warning enough.

Billy Stubbs was next, or rather his rabbit was, everyone knew how much the rabbit meant to him, so Tom decided to use the rabbit to make Billy suffer. The elder boy had been bullying Tom for years, but Tom could deal with that it was when the boy started to steal the meagre amount of food Tom was given that Tom took action. No-one could prove that he had hung Billy's rabbit from the rafters, but everyone knew that it was him. Everyone made sure to leave him alone after that.

He didn't know what it was that he was doing, he had yet to figure out the nature of his gift, but he did know that he was powerful. Tom thrived on that power, it was addictive, he had never felt anything like it before. As an orphan who had lived in the orphanage his whole life he was beholden to his caregivers, none of whom like him very much, meaning he had little to no power over anything in his life. That had changed though and it was him who held the power now. He was unwilling to give up that power for anyone and over time he developed it even further. He would often take things from the other children without them seeing and keep them for himself, they weren't things that he actually wanted for any other purpose than to upset whoever he took them from.

When Professor Dumbledore turned up at the orphanage Tom had originally thought that the man was coming from an asylum, the Matron had threatened to send him to one often enough, but the man had come to offer him a place at a school. A school for people like him, people with magic, a school where he could learn to use his powers properly. It made him question himself, was he really powerful, or was he just average, another wizard child in the world. He refused to be average or mediocre, he was going to be the best of his year he was determined. He had revealed one of his talents to the man to gauge how normal he was, and was pleasantly surprised to find that talking to snakes was not a common talent among the wizards.

He rejected the professors offer to escort him for his school shopping, instead taking the list for himself as well as the bronze key to a bank account that had been set up for him from a trust of money set aside for orphans. He managed to wait a whole day before sneaking out of the orphanage and making his way to Charing Cross Road and the hidden entrance to the magical world. His first stop was Gringotts, where he went to get some money and to find out how much he was being supplied with.

After gathering some money he went first to get his uniform, using all the charm he possessed he made the woman see him as a lovely young boy, and ended up leaving with his clothing at a cheaper price than many of the other patrons would have paid. By the time Tom left Diagon Alley he had all his school supplies, as well as quite a few extra books, as well as a few offers of odd jobs around Diagon Alley during the summer months. He returned to the orphanage unseen and began to devour the books he had bought, he would make sure that he wasn't going into the school as average. If he could master everything that he needed to learn in first year before he arrived, or at least have a very good understanding of all his subjects then he could spend his time at school going through the library to learn more to secure his power.


	2. Bellatrix Black Lestrange

AN: Written for **The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition ** Prompt: Walnut - **Write about Bellatrix Lestrange, whose wand was walnut. **

Bellatrix Black had always been dark, she was born into a dark family after all, and unlike her cousin Sirius she embraced it. She remembered being a child and watching her father and mother using dark magic, the feel of it had called to her, the magic called to her. She had heard about attraction to magic but she had never expected to be one that suffered from the curse. It was often said that one in every generation was attracted to magic rather than other people, they had a much closer relationship with magic than others, but they would only accept a partner with suitably strong magic.

Bellatrix knew that her marriage was to be arranged, but she would make sure that she had some sort of say in the whole affair. Her magic needed someone with strong dark magic, not just anyone would do, and she was a Black they had standards. When she entered Hogwarts she immediately began looking for someone who would be suitable for her, the magic within a person really flourished with constant use that came from the structure of the Hogwarts curriculum. There were a few who were possible future husbands, but none of them were powerful, yes, they all had power, but none of them called to her.

She had spoken to her parents about this, but they were only willing to bend so far when it came to her marriage. They had to choose someone who would be an acceptable Black spouse, whether or not he could assuage her lust for power was secondary to finding her a good match. She would be allowed to choose the top three from Hogwarts and her parents would look between them and choose who to begin negotiations with. By the end of her first year at Hogwarts negotiations were already taking place between her parents and the Lestranges, and by time she got home for the summer the contract had been signed. Bellatrix would be bound to Rodolphus Lestrange when she came of age, and their marriage would be a prosperous one. She knew though that he would never be enough, she had felt the magic on the edge of her consciousness, there was someone out there that was powerful enough to satisfy her, she just had to find him.

The year that she turned seventeen had been the best and worst year in Bellatrix's life. She had finished her Hogwarts career and was married to Rodolphus, and she had been right about him not being enough for her, he was good to her and catered to her every whim, but the lack of powerful magic was driving her mad. She had also met him though, the Dark Lord, she had pledged her life to him and his cause, knowing that it was a bond deeper than her marriage bond. She did this freely though, knowing that Rodolphus would never think too much of the bond that they had both entered into.

The Dark Lord was powerful, deliciously powerful, and Bellatrix basked in that power whenever she had the opportunity. She quickly and easily became the Dark Lord's most devoted follower, following him for his magic, the powerful feeling that he emitted wrapping around her like the warmest cloak in winter. She would do anything for him just to feel his magic. Years passed and she allowed herself to fall into the madness of the Blacks as she devoted herself to her Lord's cause, her marriage suffering as a result, but she didn't care.

One night that comforting magic seemed to flare for a moment before vanishing almost, there was only the faintest traces of it left at the edge of her consciousness, and Bellatrix knew. Something had happened to the Dark Lord, most likely at the hands of the order of the phoenix as the Ministry of Magic were not really doing anything about the Dark sect. Searching for the Dark Lord and bringing him back to his full glory was her self-appointed mission when she felt that magic diminish, and she quickly rounded up some troops.

She took Rodolphus, Rabastan and Barty Crouch Jr with her, and went to find someone who knew anything about the disappearance of the Dark Lord. The aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom were just the people that she believed would know something, the Dark Lord had spoken often about there defiance of him along with the Potters. As members of the Ministry and of Dumbledore's order they were bound to know something, and she was determined not to leave without the knowledge of her Master's whereabouts.

The two aurors were tortured within an inch of their lives, but yet they were still unwilling to part with the information that Bellatrix wanted. She let out a short screech of frustration when she felt the wards they had put up were breeched. Before she had a chance to call out a warning to the others or apparate away herself she found that they were overcome by aurors and before she knew it she was sat in a Ministry holding cell.

Her new accommodations on the isle of Azkaban were not as bad as people had always made out. The dementors were dark creatures, full of dark emotions and dark magic, that consumed all the happy memories that they took from those they guarded. The magic they possessed helped her some, but it wasn't anywhere as potent as the Dark Lord's magic and by the time he returned and came for her she had fallen into madness. The lack of strong magic to soothe her and her magical core had turned it inwards on her.

She was still alive when she left Azkaban, in fact she was in better condition than most of the prisoners, but she had completely snapped. Everything she did was fuelled by madness and a crazy need to possess the darkest of magic, to please her master was now her sole purpose, to feel his magic. Bellatrix Black had always been dark, but Bellatrix Lestrange was the Darkest Black, body, mind and soul where all consumed by the magic.


	3. Harry Potter

AN: Written for **The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition ** Prompt: Holly - **Write about Harry Potter himself.**

Harry Potter was born to a light family, a Pureblood on his father's side, and a muggleborn mother. Both parents doted on their child as much as they were able to, being prime targets in the magical war that was flourishing around them. They were trying to balance the role of new parents and top enemies of the dark sect. Harry didn't really suffer as a result though, he knew that his parents loved him, and they spent as much time as they were able to with him. That wasn't enough though to create the memories he would need to see him through in the future.

Harry's parents died the Halloween after he turned one, and he was sent to live with his magic hating relatives, after being hailed the saviour of the magical world. Lord Voldemort had arrived at their house that night after they had been betrayed by one of their friends and had killed Harry's father first, before offering to spare his mother before turning his wand on Harry. Lily Potter had been unable to stand aside though while the man murdered her child and had sacrificed herself for her little boy. As a result, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry he had been in for a shock, Lily's sacrifice protecting the young child and making the killing curse rebound, removing Voldemort from his body. Young Harry was hailed as the Boy-who-lived, and then sent off to the muggle world for his protection and to make sure that he did not become spoilt due to his fame.

Spoilt was the last word on the planet that could be accurately used to describe Harry Potter though. The young child was anything but spoiled, from a young age he had been expected to carry out a large list of chores that would intimidate children much older. Harry was worked like a house elf but without any care for himself, at least house elves were fed by their masters, Harry was lucky if he got one measly meal a day, and it was never filling.

Harry's placement at the Dursley family's home was supposed to be to ensure his protection from those who would wish to harm him, but it was more likely that he would have been safer in the home of a death eater than the home of his relatives. It was something that if the magical world knew of would cause an uproar. The saviour of the magical world being treated as the scum of the earth by muggles, unable to defend himself, knowing nothing about his parents, about who they were, what he was, or anything about magic in general. There was no such thing as magic in the Dursley's view of the world, and that was the view that Harry had always been forced to subscribe to, a normal boring muggle version of the world.

In trying to protect Harry from the horrors of the magical world the wizarding world had instead caused him to be subjected to the horrors that existed in the muggle world. Abusive muggle guardians, muggle neighbours who didn't seem to care about the state of the poor child; believing him to be the problem, not the Dursleys, and of course the muggle authorities that brushed his abuse under the rug. By the time that Harry received his Hogwarts letter he was disillusioned with the world, and the magical world was one that he could escape into away from the horrors of his past.

Entering the magical world though was not quite what he had expected, he was famous, someone that everyone looked to for something that he had no knowledge of. He was praised for surviving where his parents had died, the world was out to get him in just a different way from the muggles. The muggles wanted him downtrodden and ready to serve their whims, the magicals well they wanted to place him on a pedestal and worship him, something that he was unwilling to allow for something he couldn't remember. Praise and recognition for his own skills he would gladly accept, but vanquishing a dark lord at one year old was ridiculous.

Harry set off to Hogwarts with the knowledge of the wizarding worlds idiocy and their expectations of him firmly in mind and decided to play along for the time being. He would get himself sorted into the house of the brave like his parents and rush into stupid confrontations showing him to be a little light wizard for the world to coo over. It would allow him the freedom to be himself and find out where he fitted into the world when they weren't looking. If they thought he was what they wanted they wouldn't look too deeply into what it was that he was doing. His plan proved to work, the only ones who were able to see through him were Professor Snape and the Bloody Baron, but they were both very Slytherin, and had seen the masks of many people before him.

Their knowing wasn't detrimental to him though, as they were both helpful in their own right. Snape was good for making sure that his Gryffindor Golden Boy mask stayed in place by battling the evil Slytherin grouch that the professor was. The man seemed to enjoy their verbal spars in classes that went over the heads of the majority of the student body. The Bloody Baron on the other hand was great for knowledge, the ghost had been around for a long time after all, and by the time that Harry was ready to leave Hogwarts he had almost exhausted the Baron's knowledge of spellwork and curses. The ghost had also been useful for passing on information and had helped Harry with sneaking away from his friends to either the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement to practice and study the arts that his friend would be horrified to know of. If either Ron or Hermione knew that he practiced the Dark arts or blood magic they would turn on him quicker than they could say traitor, if they knew that he enjoyed them and excelled at them they would do their best to make sure that he was locked up in Azkaban.

They wouldn't know until the time was right though, he had made sure of it with the help of Professor Snape and the Bloody Baron that he would not be discovered until the right time. It would be when he was at his Lord's side, helping to rid the world of the foul muggles that they realised that being born light meant nothing in the grand scheme of things and that everyone had the potential to turn dark. He had been helping Voldemort the whole time, helping the man to gain power whilst appearing not to.


	4. The Dark's Rise

AN: Written for **The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition ** Prompt: Alder - **Write about an unlikely pairing. **

Harry surveyed the Great Hall from his seat on Voldemort's right, looking out at all the gathered students, his graduation party really was in full swing. His gaze swung to his left taking in the look of glee on the Dark Lords face at the fact that they had the youth of magical Britain under their control and that the adults were sure to follow not long behind, in the hopes that their precious children would be spared the torture or whatever horrors it was that Voldemort was sure to inflict upon them.

Just past Voldemort Bellatrix was sat on the Dark Lord's left, holding onto his knee beneath the table, hoping that she could contain him possibly if someone annoyed him, or perhaps to spur him on, Harry could never really be sure when it came to Bellatrix, her moods were often so complicated to figure out. He would bet that even she was unsure about what was going on in her head, especially after her long stint in Azkaban.

"You have surrendered today, with the help of course of your hero Harry Potter," Voldemort spoke as he began to address the hall, "He agrees with me that this war should be concluded with as little blood shed as possible, after all, magical blood is precious."

Harry watched the words be taken in by his fellow students, and the teachers that remained bound at the Ravenclaw table. The only teachers still sat at the Head Table were those that they knew for definite were loyal to their side. The others would get to prove their loyalty to the magical world and the new rule soon enough, but for now it was just easier to keep them out of the way. They all looked to him, wondering if he had called a truce with Voldemort to protect them, to stop the war for raging on for years. Harry wanted to laugh at the thought, he had no care for any of their lives, just like they had never really cared for him, only what they could get from him. Now though there was nothing that they could do to make him change his path, the Headmaster had steered him for years, using Hermione and the Weasleys as his tools, but Harry had never been fooled.

The Headmaster on the other hand, well a bigger fool he had never known, unless he counted his uncle Vernon. Harry had been helping Voldemort since his second year, helping the man escape from Hogwarts still in his diary, a fake being presented to the Headmaster, after the Basilisk pierced it for them. It hadn't taken Harry long to convince the young Tom Riddle that the subtle approach was necessary and that they should hide his return for as long as they could so that they could amass followers. The staged resurrection in Harry's fourth year was just that, staged, Voldemort had already been roaming around the wizarding world in a body for two years, bending people's will to his own, using his charming appearance if he had to.

The break out from Azkaban had been one of the favourite missions Harry had gone along on. He had been curious as to what the prison was like and as he was fully capable of casting a patronus he had asked to be able to accompany his Lord to rescue their captured comrades. The use of a time turner meant that no-one missed him at Hogwarts and he was able to explore the Dark Fortress as much as he could before they left with the prisoners. There was something about Azkaban that had called to Harry and he was still in the process two years later of convincing the Dark Lord to make it the home of the Dark sect, or at least of the core members.

"You will now be sorted by your blood status, age, gender and a few other attributes like intelligence and allegiance." Voldemort stated, staring out at the hall, knowing that those who were dark would be taking up the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables within a few minutes, and the Hufflepuff table would be filled with the younger light members who could still be turned to their cause and the Gryffindor table, well they would hold the rest.

"Those of you who will be unable to be productive members of our new society of your own accord will be given new opportunities to be so." Voldemort spoke, his cold voice reaching the corners of the hall, no-one dared to speak or even draw breath in case it brought his attention to them.

Harry stood up and began to sort people to the different tables with the help of Severus Snape, until the whole school worth of students had been sorted. Those who were dark would be free to go home to their parents if they too were dark, those whose parents were neutral or light would be persuaded to co-operate with the Dark sect for the sake of their children. The light younger children would be kept at Hogwarts year round, learning to be productive members of the new order, their parents would be made to toe the line through the thought of their children being harmed. The others had been assigned new roles that they would be unable to move from, that would make sure that they were unable to rebel. People like Ron, Ginny and Hermione fell into this category, or rather Ginny would the next year if she was unable to prove her worth in the next year.

With the reduced birth rate in the wizarding world it had been decided that something had to be done to bring the amount of children being born up. As a result the new order would be advocating the use of surrogates or broodmares, preferably pureblooded, but some powerful muggleborns would be cast into this role as well. This was the exact role that Harry had thought of for Ron and Hermione, they would go straight to a group house after they left Hogwarts, and they would be used to bring back the strength of the pureblood families. It was a known fact that the Weasley's were a fertile family, and Ron would no doubt provide many families with children before he died. Hermione was quite powerful for a muggleborn, but her magic would never be hers to use again, the only thing her magic was good for now would be to pass on to the next generation, in her case first generation purebloods.

Many cried out and protested when they learnt their fate, but Harry just shared a smirk with Voldemort, and sent a soft smile in the still seated Bella's direction. This would ensure prosperity and births of more magical children, ensure a future where magic was might, and the rule of the dark was absolute. There were some that shouted that Harry himself and Voldemort were doing nothing for the birth rate, but they were really, they had stopped the decimation of magical families, instead focusing on the muggles who needed to be culled, and Bellatrix was currently carrying their heirs. The three of them would rule the Dark and Magical Britain until the end of their natural lives, and then their children would step in and rule the empire that their father's and mother had created for their future, from the seat of power that was Azkaban.


End file.
